700-km safety wall to be built along Mumbai-Nagpur highway

MUMBAI:The state cabinet on Tuesday cleared a proposal to revise the cost of the ambitious Mumbai-Nagpur supercommunications highway from Rs 49,000 crore to Rs 55,000 crore.

The escalation has been effected due to additions of a continuous 700-km-long safety wall running along both sides of the superhighway and revision of the road surface from asphalt to concrete.

A pet project of chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, the Mumbai-Nagpur superhighway has run into opposition from villagers in certain districts over surrendering land. Officials said this also led to hike in cost as land compensation rate was revised.

A senior MSRDC official said earlier the basic engineering cost of the superhighway was about Rs 30,000 crore and, considering the administrative expenses including compensation, land acquisition, bank interest on loans and equity, government fees and taxes, the total cost was calculated at Rs 49,000 crore. The overall project cost will now go up to Rs 55,000 crore.

Eventually, its motorists who will bear the cost burden in the form of higher toll.

Finance minister Sudhir Mungantiwar said the safety wall will ensure there is no encroachment along the highway and will also act a safety barrier in case of accidents.

“Change in road surface from asphalt to concrete will increase the initial cost of the project, but will reduce maintenance cost in the long run. It will straight away increase shelf life of the road by 20-22 years,” said another official.

Mungantiwar said the cabinet on Tuesday decided that the state will pay the first three years of interest on loans taken by the MSRDC. He added that since it a priority project, the corporation will submit monthly updates to the state cabinet.

The superhighway will link 24 districts and open up opportunities to set up agro-processing plants alongside the road. As per the project plan, 26 nodes will be set up and agroprocessing units will be set up in those nodes.